Archive for the ‘Interview’ Category

I had the chance to ask the creator of Doukutsu Monogatari (Cave Story in english) a few questions.
His loyalty to the community of his games is big, even if there might be some miscommunication in the language barrier.

First of all, thank you for taking your time and answering my questions…
I’m a BIG fan of your works and especially Doukutsu Monogatari. To tell you the truth, when i came to the last area of Doukutsu Monogatari and saw the sign in the sky that said: “This is the end” i almost started to cry… damn, i never wanted the game to end 😦

Me: So, what is the main reason you can not or would not make a sequal to
Doukutsu Monogatari?

Pixel: I cant afford to make time, and even if i could afford to make time i would put my time to make other games.

Me: What other games inspires you when it comes to create your own game?
What is your favorite videogame?

Pixel:I love the NES (Famicon)
The Game Boy is also a favorite.
I like action scrolling games.
I like Metroid.

Me: No suprise there 🙂

Characters from Doukutsu Monogatari / Cave Story

Me: What is your hobby except from making good games?

Pixel: Painting and electronic piano. But once again, i dont have any time.
The Electronic piano in the room was very cold. (Haven’t been used in a long time)

Me: What is your favorite color, animal and food?

Pixel: Gray and orange. Yellow and blue.

Me: Awesome ^.^

Me: Is there anything else you would like to tell your fans?
Pixel: We would like to make other games in the future.

– – –

If you would like to play Cave Story in english please visite the translators page here or the fansite with alot of extras over here. A remix-project of the music is highly recommended over here. If you wanna try a PSP-port head over here.

And here is a Audiosurf-gameplay. Audiosurf can be bought at Steampowered.com for only 9.95 USD. Well worth it.

Gabe Newell is the founder of Valve and one of the maker of the Half-Life brand. Before Valves time he worked at Microsoft for 13 years, and after that started Valve at -96. Here is a short interview with one of the biggest name in the field, the person who responds to all fan-mails on his spare time, only for you. And me.

Me: First of all, before i forget, where from is the idea of Valves name & logo?

Gabe: We came up with the name and logo pretty much the same way we do everything else. We started off with a set of objectives for what we needed to communicate with the company’s identity, created several proposals intended to meet those objectives, and picked the one that did the best job.

Some of the other finalists were Rhino Scar (imagine a simple outline of a guy with a round hole through his middle) and Fruit Fly Ensemble.

Me: You Know, people gets quite frustrated when you keep delaying our relationship with Alyx time after time… We certainly wont see her for another 18+ months in Episode 3 (or if ever). For how long time do you think it’s possible to delay a big title like this without hurting the game to much?

Gabe: I don’t know. We just always focus on quality, which can be frustrating during the wait, but which pays off when we’re done (we hope)

-Yes, it does, and for that we are thankful.

Me: If it was up to you, would you concidered changing the title to ‘Expansion’ instead of ‘Episode’?

Gabe: Nope. Once we’ve done all three we’ll review what worked and didn’t worked with the community.

Me: Episode 2 will have additional graphic improvments from Half-Life 2, is it somehow possible that we would see the last part of HL2: Episode 3 with Direct X 10 futures?

Gabe: We will continuously improve the underlying technology with each release. Left 4 Dead, Portal, Team Fortress Two, and Episode Two all move the engine forward.

Me: We haven’t seen any Source-driven game that have sold half as much as Half-Life 2. How come, and what is the secret?

Gabe: I’m sure at some point there will be a Source game that outsells anything we’ve done. It’s just a question of time.

Me: Steam has been proven to be a splendid Option instead of going to the store (IRL) – Any super secret hints you can spare what’s to come to Steam?

Gabe: The secret word is “Braveheart.”

Free-man-dom?

Me: What’s your abilities, except computer knowledge?

Gabe: I’m a utility infielder. There’s always somebody who is better at a specific task than I am, but I can pitch in at a bunch of different things as needed.

Me: Favorite, color, animal and food?

Gabe: Orange, Maine Coon Cat, and Pho.

Me: Now when we have a candidate for both Gordon Freeman and Gman is there any more news about any eventually Half-Life movie?